How to win Rock-paper-scissors every time

I admit it. When I first heard there are actual tournaments for Rock-paper-scissors, sanctioned by the World Rock Paper Scissors Society, I laughed. I mean seriously, $50k to the winner of a game that requires no skill whatsoever? Absurd. Boy was I wrong.

Rock-paper-scissors isn’t just a silly game kids play or a way to decide who has to be the designated driver at parties. This is serious stuff. It’s psychological warfare. ChaCha Answers explains.

Males have a tendency to throw rock on their first try, inexperienced RPS players will subconsciously deliver the item that won previously, and paper is thrown least often, so use it as a surprise. And remember, when in doubt, throw the Spock. Your opponent will never know what hit him. You’ll be disqualified, but at least you’ll go out fighting.

116 Comments

My nephews liked to throw the illegal “dynamite,” which, according to them, could blow anything up. Until I pointed out I could cut their wick with my scissors. At which point they would usually challenge me to a thumb war, which I would lose.

i really like the concept and idea of that game..makes a lot of sense to me….i created a similar kind of game for my 6 year old twin boys…usin a giraffe, rabbit n bull as simple hand symbols…bull gets the rabbit, giraffe gives bill an almighty kick and little rabbit trips up the giraffe..i know doesn’t make much sense but sometimes the boys prefer a new version to the old rock/paper/scissor…oh n the newest game they really love is the ‘Meteor Game’ its simple…they lie on their back on the bed and i hurl pillows saying stuff like ‘this meteor is headed for Africa…oh no! save all the beautiful zebras/cheetahs etc n they kick the pillows away from the bed with their legs..you can go on saving kangaroos in Australia, camels in the Sahara, species in the Galopogos islands..whales in the ocean..and so on. and its quite educational too depending on your imagination…bye

I’m confused about the advice on step 4. If your opponent has thrown three rocks in a row and is therefore likely to throw either paper or scissors next, why would you throw rock? This gives you an equal chance of winning or losing if they indeed do not throw rock. Throwing scissors would give you an equal chance of drawing and winning if they don’t throw rock, a better expected outcome than if you threw rock.

OK, so there’s some psychology that can be used to foresee predictable moves, etc.

But that would seem to work only at the most basic level. Once it gets beyond that — a situation in which both competitors fully understand that psychology and predictability — it seems it would get pretty random again. Once both players are that deep into the logic chain (“he would do X here, so I’ll do Y, but of course he knows that I know that, so he’ll instead do Z,” etc.), then basically it’s just back to a matter of chance.

Just to be clear on what I mean by “it gets back to being a matter of chance”: When the logic chain on a given play is so lengthy (indeed infinite), then it’s really just a matter of which step in the chain each player chooses to stop at. One happens to stop at step 6 (“he knows that I know that he knows that I know that he knows”), the other at step 4 (“he knows that I know that he knows”), and the outcome becomes random.

And it truly is random, because that logic chain is indeed infinite. There’s no “correct” stopping place.

The human mind CAN NOT generate random numbers, nor would that be a good strategy as it has a 33% win rate.
The balance in all strategy games is derived from the game mechanics in RPS and it’s variants. Most fighting games are based entirely on RPS. Research your shit and THEN try to be a smart ass…

Double on the Rocks is wrong. If you know the other person is not going to throw rock, you should counter with the throw that rock beats – Scissors. Since they are not going to play rock, you’re guaranteed at least a draw.

Poe is credited with creating the mystery genre but really his mysteries are more like lectures on non-mathematical logic, rather than stories.

And mind you, they are interesting lectures. he predicted and denounced the trend of treating logic as a matter of mathematics. i think we live in the world he was arguing against today, and yeah, i think we are a little worse off for it.

As for rock, scissors, paper, the problem with this kind of thing is it can quickly devolve into the guessing game scene in the Princess Bride, where first the guy says, your first instinct would be to put the poison away from yourself; but then you might know i would predict that, and thus put it closer; but you might also predict that i would predict that… and so on. I don’t remember the dialogue, but that was the upshot.

Step four is giving bad advice. Since you “know” that the next throw will either be paper or scissors, you would not want to throw rock. With rock you have a 50% chance of winning and a 50% chance of losing (assuming we “know” that your opponent’s next throw will not be rock).

You should instead counter with scissors. This way you have a 50% chance of winning (if your opponent chooses paper) and a 50% chance of a draw (if your opponent chooses scissors).

If you choose paper there is a 50% chance you will lose and a 50% chance you will get a draw… so you can’t win.

Therfore, Scissors is the best choice. You can’t lose, only tie or win.

Feh! RPS(LS) is only effective if done from underneath a table. Even drawing from behind the back, the person with superior (manual) reaction speed will generally win by starting from a semi-scissors position and quickly adjusting his choice in accordance to what his slower less-able-to-quickly-counter opponent brings out.

(Alternative: mandate off-hand use: righties must use left-hand and vice-versa)

One minor disagreement: in step #4, you say that your opponent will come at you with either paper or scissors after a two-rock run; yet you recommend countering with rock. This is a bad idea statistically; you should counter with scissors instead. If you counter with rock, you can win vs. scissors, but LOSE vs. paper, while if you counter with scissors, you either win or TIE (and live to fight another round).

I like bear-ninja-cowboy. cowboy shoots the bear, bear eats ninja, ninja dodges cowboy’s bullets. you play by pacing off, not your hands. the spock of this one? chuck norris. he’s a cowboy-ninja, and a bear of a man.

the folks who advocate scissors to counter after a two rock throw ignore the stats given for rps, r gets 35%, s gets 35% and p gets 30%. this means there is a psychological predisposition for your opponent to throw scissors instead of paper, which gives you an overall statistical edge if you throw rock. in other words you’ll win outright more often if you throw rock after a r-r game, tie more often if you throw scissors or lose more often if you throw paper.

step 4 under strategy suggests throwing rock after your opponents consecutive rocks because they will likely throw either scissors or paper. However if you know they will throw scissors or paper throw scissors, this way you either win or tie rather than win or lose as is the case with throwing rock in that spot.

scissors cuts paper. this paper is in strips its useless, rock crushes scissors? my scissors are crushed they are in pieces. you win. paper covers rock… rocks ok. rock can break our at any point in time… it should be rock, dynamite with a cuttable wick, scissors- demetry martin comedy.

Farmer (angry farmer fist in the air), Bunny (bunny foo foo shaped hand) , Dog (dog shaped shadow puppet hand gesture). Farmer “Beats” Dog. Dog eats bunny, bunny thwarts farmer. And the best part is for ties: 1st time biggest bunny wins 2nd time smallest bunny wins and so on. First to name your dog a commonly used dog name that hasn’t been used in the game before wins. And the farmer is the funniest. When a tie occurs with two (or more) farmers being thrown, players must immediately act like angry McGreggers shaking the fist and saying things an angry farmer would say like, “Darn kids get out of my corn rows.” or “Always stomping my punkin patch.” etc. the idea is to be as creative as possible because last one to laugh wins.